Victims Urge “whistleblowers” to Step Forward Re Msgr. Lynn

SNAP
August 4, 2016

http://www.snapnetwork.org/pa_victims_urge_whistleblowers_to_step_forward_re_msgr_lynn

A trial date has been set for the only US Catholic official to ever do jail time for hiding and enabling child sex crimes. So now it’s time for church staff to stop protecting Msgr. William Lynn like Lynn protected predator priests. It’s time for every current and former church employee – from bookkeeper to bishop – who has information or suspicions about Msgr. Lynn’s complicity to overcome their fears, do their duty and call Philly prosecutors.

“This is excessively punitive,” some will claim. They’re wrong. This is about smart deterrence and simple justice. All of us have a duty to safeguard kids by holding those who don’t responsible for their wrongdoing.

No matter what church officials do or don’t do, we urge every single person who saw, suspected or suffered child sex crimes and cover ups in Catholic churches or institutions to protect kids by calling police, get help by calling therapists, expose wrongdoers by calling law enforcement, get justice by calling attorneys, and be comforted by calling support groups like ours. This is how kids will be safer, adults will recover, criminals will be prosecuted, cover ups will be deterred and the truth will surface.

(SNAP, the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests, is the world’s oldest and largest support group for clergy abuse victims. SNAP was founded in 1988 and has more than 20,000 members. Despite the word “priest” in our title, we have members who were molested by religious figures of all denominations, including nuns, rabbis, bishops, and Protestant ministers. Our website is SNAPnetwork.org)